Lesson 3 Building for Change
Kéré, Architect of Dreams
“It is not because you are rich that you should waste ____
It is not because you are poor that you should not try to create ____
Architecture, to me, ____ caring.”
The role of ____ is often associated with the design of luxury buildings.
Architects mainly focus on how unique and extraordinary the buildings they design are, and thus it is easy ____ forget how architecture can modify places and give people better living conditions.
Architects need to think about using architecture as ____ tool for the development of communities that responds to the current needs of society,
even in places ____ lack money and building technologies, and Diébédo Francis Kéré is doing exactly that in Africa.
Francis ____ a winner of the Pritzker Prize, was born in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa.
The region in Africa ____ he grew up didn’t have any electricity or running water.
When he was seven, he had to move 13 km away to attend ____
He made history in his village as its first ____ ever.
The conditions of the school he attended were very ____
The classroom, hastily constructed from cement, was filled with over ____ hundred children.
With temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees and ____ any form of lighting, it was a challenging environment for learning.
Although Kéré could have given up his dreams, ____ remained determined to study.
While still ____ young student, he was awarded a scholarship to study carpentry in Germany.
He finished his high school studies in Germany ____ went on to attend university there as well.
Even though he became a globally recognized architect in Germany, ____ has not forgotten his roots.
His architectural designs are deeply influenced by his love for ____ and a profound sense of pride in his people.
Gando Primary School
For his first project, he managed to raise ____ to build an elementary school in his native village, Gando.
Instead of using ____ conventional modern materials like concrete, glass, and steel, he chose to use clay, embracing the traditional building methods of Africa.
He made bricks by ____ clay, a locally available material, with 10% cement.
This ____ helps keep classrooms cool during hot weather.
Additionally, ____ used bricks with holes in them to make the ceiling and built a high roof using a contemporary architectural system to let hot air escape.
____ large overhanging roof provides shade and protects the clay bricks from heavy rain.
Traditionally, members of a whole village ____ together to build and repair homes in rural Burkina Faso.
In keeping with this cultural practice, Kéré encouraged the villagers of ____ to take part in the construction process.
His objective was for them to make the place on their ____
Children gathered stones for the school ____ and women brought water for brick manufacturing.
He also trained the young members ____ the village and then they collaborated on the construction.
These trained workers have since used these new skills to build ____ and houses in other communities.
Furthermore, he ____ all the architectural plans for the school construction available to anyone in the village, which made it easier for two nearby villages to build their own schools.
Thanks to the success of this project, ____ number of students increased from 120 to a remarkable 700.
Lycée Schorge Secondary School
Located in Burkina Faso’s third largest city, the Lycée ____ Secondary School is comprised of nine distinct modules.
These modules house a collection of classrooms and offices, all centered around a main ____ courtyard.
This ____ ensures privacy from the main public area while simultaneously sheltering and protecting the courtyard against wind and dust.
Kéré tackled the problem of limited resources during the building’s construction by using materials that were ____ to find in the region in the same manner as before.
First of ____ he built the walls of the building using bricks made from readily available stone in the region.
These bricks help cool the building by absorbing intense daytime heat and later releasing ____ during the night.
As with many other buildings, an ____ roof protects the brick walls from the harsh African sun while also facilitating air circulation below.
To capture fresh air and let hot air escape, Kéré also added wind towers ____ top of each classroom.
The school is surrounded by a screen made from fast-growing ____ eucalyptus trees.
This screen provides more than just protection ____ dust and wind.
It also creates casual ____ where students can gather as they wait for their classes to begin.
Serpentine Pavilion
Over time Kéré’s work has expanded ____ beyond Africa.
It now includes temporary and permanent structures in ____ Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.
Perhaps not too surprisingly, his works outside of Africa are influenced by his experiences ____ Gando.
A perfect example is the colorful Serpentine ____ in London.
Since the year 2000, the Serpentine Gallery in the UK has ____ invited distinguished architects from around the world to design a pavilion, which provides a place of rest for visitors.
In 2017, the honor was extended to ____
Drawing inspiration from his hometown, where locals would gather to work, converse, and study beneath the shade of trees, he modeled his design after a ____ tree.
The pavilion’s roof, ____ the wide branches of a tree, includes a transparent layer that allows sunlight to spread into the pavilion below.
Visitors may ____ the pavilion through one of its four entrances and sit around the central ring to look up at the sky.
The pavilion’s exterior walls, shaped like triangles and made of blue wooden blocks, reflect Kéré’s cultural ____
In his hometown, residents traditionally wear blue clothing during ____ of celebration, and the triangles symbolize luck and confidence.
Holes ____ in the walls let in light to promote an airy, bright atmosphere, and a gap between the roof and walls ensures a lot of air circulation.
The roof ’s unique funnel ____ channels rainwater toward the building’s center.
During rainfall, the water gathers and pours down like ____ waterfall.
It is then ____ through a drainage system for the purpose of watering plants.
This method of rainwater collection stands as ____ symbolic message about the global challenges of water scarcity and climate change.
Kéré believes that architecture is primarily a service to humanity and hopes that his projects will inspire people “to dream ____ better.”
The more his vision is shared with a wider audience, the better our ____ will become.